Saturday's game ball to be hand delivered in 'Rivalry Run'

Oct. 16, 2008

KALAMAZOO--The 140 miles between Western Michigan University and Central Michigan University will be covered on foot Friday, Oct. 17, as members of each school's ROTC units stage a Rivalry Run to transfer the game ball for the Oct. 18 showdown between the Bronco and Chippewa football teams.

The ball will leave WMU's AT building on the Oakland Drive campus in Kalamazoo at 4:30 a.m. with about 20 members of the WMU unit taking turns running the ball 55 miles to Fifth Third Ballpark, north of Grand Rapids, for a 1 p.m. handoff to their CMU counterparts. The CMU group will complete the 85 miles of the second stage delivering the ball to CMU's Finch Field House in Mt. Pleasant at about 1:30 a.m. Saturday.

The run is an effort to reprise a WMU/CMU game week tradition popular in earlier times.

For more information, call Lt. Col. Brett Johnson of WMU's Department of Military Science at (269) 387-8122 or Cheryl Roland in the WMU Office of University Relations at (269) 387-8412.